St Petersburg: I almost hate to say it but one of the best parts of visiting St Petersburg may have been the people in our tour group. Jo and Rob were fun and cheery and it was totally Jo’s fault that I sat on that carved lion at Peterhof. (Well, maybe not totally Jo’s fault.) There were also 4 people from western NY one of whom worked at the white house for over 20 years and had some very interesting stories to tell. He couldn’t tell the best of the stories because White House staffers take vows of silence but it was still pretty interesting to talk with him.
The cruise ship’s people made us believe that it would be hard to get through immigration and that the officials would be rude but they weren’t at all. We were in line for about half an hour but it was pretty straight forward – show passport and proof of tour agency contact with immigration card and go. The cruise ship told us to have copies of our passports but we didn’t need them and they told us that we couldn’t bring food into Russia but that wasn’t true either and the food at the tourist locations was darn expensive – such as the tiny $18 sandwich – so on the second day we took food.
Our guide was the articulate and knowledgeable Sophia from J & T Travel. Russian tour agencies are allowed to bring people into Russia without visas. J&T arranged for us to go right into museums and churches instead of waiting in lines; had bottled water for us both days and gave us Russian dolls at the end. Also, we signed up for a tour with 4 people at a given price but when they expanded the group to 13 people the price went down to 2/3rds of the original price so that was a great surprise.
We started with a photo stop at a large square in the middle of town by St. Isaacs Church. It was damaged in the second war but when they rebuilt it damaged areas of the pillars were left as is. We were there early so it wasn’t open.
We went to Catherine’s Palace for our first taste of royal taste. There was a band playing and trying to sell CDs outside the palace. Inside was gold leaf everything.
One room was windows on one side and mirrors on the other 3 with 500 lights (replacing 500 candles) and all the decorations were carved wood with gold leaf. The room shimmered with glitz. The floor was marvelous and the mirrors were aching for fancy gowns instead of travel pants and T-shirts. The ceiling was painted and carved and gold leafed. Royalty really goes for bling.
In the halls were 2 Cupid statues. One Cupid sleeps – that’s the west – and in the east Cupid wakes up. The statues were to help guests know which wing of the palace they were standing in.
There were portraits of hims and hers and visitors and generals. There were some empty dresses showing the detail of clothing. Catherine (I think it was Catherine) never liked to wear the same gown twice. I think they have 14,000 of her gowns. How they made them fast enough is a mystery. It’s not like these were simple shifts or as if they had Singers to work with. When I think of the stitching on those yards of fabric it seems the seamstresses who first had machines must have thought they were sent from heaven.
There is a big deal made of the Amber Room. The walls are covered in bits of amber.
There are some lovely amber picture frames and I looked and squinted and turned this way and that but it seemed to me that there was no actual picture in the frames. I thought the amber would form an image in mosaic pieces but I don’t think so. I took a couple of photos before realizing that they aren’t allowed. There’s a long story about the room being stolen and taken by the Nazis and never recovered but then being reproduced from sketches. After such a build up about the amazing and marvelous Amber Room I was disappointed.
The palace looks great now but in the time of the soviet rule it was really allowed to run down. There was a lot of damage during the Second World War but it’s mostly tip top now though the upkeep on a palace is significant.
We went to an out of the way Russian Orthodox church. The yard was a bit of a mess with some construction going on and the gardens in disarray but the church looked like a cross between a cake decorating contest and a crazy quilt. There were colors and details everywhere. The outside was bright with tiles and domes and turrets and the inside was totally painted. A wedding had just taken place when we arrived and the bride and groom were leaving with guests so we went inside and looked – gawked more likely. My photos will go on flickr but they are only of the exterior and of the entry hall. No photos were allowed in the church itself but the exterior is more than enough to understand how fancy a building can get.
Peterhof – now that is really fancy but this fancy is about fountains and statues.
There are hundreds of fountains in the property and the water runs through all of them by force of gravity. It shoots tens of feet into the air at some fountains and cascades down others but it’s all just gravity. Sophia said that the water was regulated by having it flow through pipes of different diameters. It was hard to believe. Really hard to believe.
This is also a place where one can understand how detached from the ordinary people a member of royalty is. It’s not very different in the US where the members of congress at state and national levels learn to live a life of power and prestige.
That White House staff members told me that it was absurd that he should have the power over the president’s schedule that he did and also said that the major corporations own all the politicians and that there is no way that we’ll get health care or banking regulations. The country will slide so much further into decay and that change is not likely in my lifetime. So depressing and yet it is what I have often felt. Obama said, “Yes we can.” He never said, “Yes, we will.” I fear he just won’t.
About sitting on the lion at Peterhof. I saw someone do it and so decided to get into the act and Jo took the photo. I guess that after that the police came over and told people to stop. I wouldn’t have done it but the lion was polished smooth from people sitting on it so I thought to go with the flow.
The Metro was great. It was just a short trip but I’m so glad we did it. The Stalin-era stations are the best, Sophia said. They were elegantly dressed in tile work and gorgeous brass lighting fixtures and there were statues and mosaics and scrolls and some crazy Britt lady making faces at me on the longest escalator ever.
The metro is used by half the citizens every day and they need to go far below the surface to find the tracks. The Stalin Era stations are the most beautiful and beautiful is the right word. They are the palaces of the underground. Sophia said that the houses built in the Stalin era are also very well built and bring the best prices now.
She said that lots of stuff fell into ill repair during the Soviet era because an apartment meant for a family would have 5 or 7 families living in it with nobody being an owner so nobody took care of the places. Now people buy apartments and they keep them well-maintained.
We went into the subway and crunched into a packed car to go one stop and then walked through a station to another train where we spent 2 stops worth of time stomach-to-back with the citizens of St. Petersburg. When we got out the driver was there with the van and we went to the Kiznechny Market which is where folks can buy gorgeous (organic) fruits and vegetables. Sophia said that people are willing to pay the high prices to get less food because the flavor is so much better. The market also had caviar and meats and cheeses. It was beautiful.
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The city is filled with gorgeous buildings and bridges. Sorry about overusing that word but it’s just the best fit. It was a real work out for the cameras.
On the second day we saw a puppy in red carpenter jeans and a fuzzy puppy that actually turned out to be a bear cub available for photos near a lovely bridge.
The Church of the Spilled Blood was the most amazing. It had been severely damaged during the Second World War and then was used as a potato storage house during the Soviet era. An unexploded shell landed in the main cupola but was removed. The church has been totally renovated now. The entire inside is covered in images made with tiny mosaic tiles - floors, walls, ceiling. It was the most impressive building. Czar Alexander II was murdered at the location so the church was built on the spot in his memory.
Then there was the Hermitage. Just when a person thinks that there can’t be anything more spectacular or ornate or complex, there is the Hermitage. It’s an art gallery containing the treasures of the royal family. These folk bought Rembrandts and Rodans and Cezannes when those guys were just artists down the block working for food so the walls are covered in treasures valued at about a million for every penny invested.
The Hermitage also holds a collection called the hidden treasures. These are works stolen from Jews by Nazis and now being contested in courts. There are no photos of these paintings allowed ostensibly because the ownership is disputed but I wonder if it is because with no photos fewer connections will be made. These people making the claims are also getting pretty old and dying off.
I’m sure I saw and heard and thought a hundred interesting things during the 2 days in St. Petersburg but the ideas have all been crowded out now by the visits to so many other places.
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
the first 4 days of our trip
Warning – If you are going to Amsterdam and plan to buy train or metro tickets with your credit card, know your pin number. Rick and I never use our pin numbers. (Do we actually have them?) Not having pin numbers added a level of difficulty to our purchase of train tickets but that was nothing compared with the level of difficulty that Delta Air assigned to our flight.
We parked in Rochester at the $15 per week parking lot at the entrance to the airport. There were only a few empty spaces and that’s the most packed we’ve ever seen it. We rolled past the gas station and across the street through the official parking lot and checked our bags to JFK. That was the last easy part of the trip.
In JFK the check in line was huge – a human snake of luggage, squirming children, exhausted adults and very serious faces. It seems that Friday’s 3:40 flight had been cancelled so an entire plane load of we’ve-been-waiting-for -24 hours-people stood demanding attention and transportation to Amsterdam in addition to the already booked plane load of we’re-going-to-Amsterdam-on-Saturday-people.
There were computer check-in kiosks for the regular Saturday flight and another group for the rescheduled people who would leave at 4:40. A person led us to the 3:40 line and Rick entered our information. The machine spit out 2 boarding passes. While we were trying to move into a line to check the luggage a man called my name. He had our luggage tags and while I was being amazed about the speed of his finding us he said, “Look at this mess.”
It was a mess. The floor was covered with people and suitcases. There were lines crossing lines. There were throngs of people; hordes of passengers; seething pools of frustration pulling wheeled suitcases.
The representative continued, “It’s because of these self-serve computer kiosks,” he fumed. “They fired people, added computers and ruined our system. They cut costs and piled on the work. They’ve ruined everything.”
I hardly dared to talk with him. He was so frustrated and exhausted. He put the tags on our suitcases and sent us to join a line for the self serve suitcase security. The passengers in that line were possessive of their bit of floor space and shooed us away. We tried to find the end of the line for the 3:40 flight and when we found someone set to go at 4:40 they let us in. We didn’t have as much time as they did, right?
There were 2 x-ray machines and 2 exhausted people feeding them suitcases. The machine would slowly pull a suitcase inside, examine it and shove it out the back with a vehement kick that rocked the entire machine. With a mix of faith and hope we left our bags there and went to the gate.
We boarded the plane a little behind schedule and then sat there on the tarmac. What was going on? When the captain spoke about a half hour later I expected him to say something cheerful like that the plane would be pulled to the taxi way but, nope. Instead he told us a little story about the cancelled flight on Friday and the rescheduling of flights that was done without a provision for food for an extra plane. That “extra” plane had food but we did not. He hoped the wait would be short but in the meantime the crew would serve what they had and he’d have them start the in-flight film.
The crew had apple juice, orange juice and water. They said that there was no food at all but we learned later that first class folk had wine and nuts.
The half hour grew to 2 hours when the captain announced the wait would be at least 90 minutes longer. The groans and complaints swelled. People were missing connecting flights. Babies declined to be patient. Everyone was getting hungry and stiff and they weren’t even getting anywhere for it.
Likely someone asked if we couldn’t just take the food from the 4:40 flight and we were told not to be jealous. That flight hadn’t taken off either. They were without a full crew to serve “our” food so they were sitting and waiting also. Was that true or a clever bit of spin?
To forestall mutiny, the captain arranged $10 food vouchers for each of us and called the buses back to take us to the terminal to amuse ourselves. On the way out we passed the first class folk eating nuts and drinking wine. Rick and I got to the door in time to find the first bus had filled and gone so we stayed there and talked. One of the crew echoed the frustration of the luggage-tag man. People were cut from the workforce. Workloads were doubled. People were exhausted from working past the breaking point, forgetting things, making mistakes. “It can’t go on like this,” she said.
The bit of JFK that we were able to walk through had a couple of rest rooms; a Hudson; a coffee shop and a Chinese restaurant. The vouchers were good at the coffee shop and restaurant only. The staff there wasn’t prepared for an extra planeload of people all at once.
Rick and I went to the coffee shop and easily spent our $20 on not much food but it was better than sitting on the plane. Still the problems continued. When we got back on the plane the food still had not arrived. It really made sense when we thought of the task of making meals for 150 people while trying to stay on schedule for all the other planes.
The food finally arrived at about 9 pm but by then we were blocked in by another plane so they had to take away the boarding ladder, tow the plane and then tow us out to where we could join the queue waiting to take off and that finally happened at about 10 p.m. – 6 hours later than scheduled. The flight was only 6 hours and 25 minutes so this was like double duty in that seat. I will admit that we arrived with our luggage but we lost half day in Amsterdam.
Instead of getting to Amsterdam at 6 a.m., we arrived after noon expecting to roll right out to the Botel. Once we bought train tickets we easily made it to Central Station and it should have been an easy walk to the Botel but, and who could be prepared for this, they moved it. A regular Hotel is quite attached to the ground and unlikely to change addresses but a Botel can move across a river. Instead of walking we had to take a ferry.
Someone told us to take the ferry on the left but she meant the left most of the 4 blue and white ferrys and not the green ferry that was all the way to the left of the pier. I bought a pair of tickets for the greens (at a computer kiosk with no people and not much English). When I realized that they were the wrong tickets, I tried to sell them to someone else. The first few people wanted round trip but we had one way and then the next bunch of people wanted children’s tickets and we had adults. I finally found a pair of women who wanted them but I couldn’t make change so they dug in their purses for coins and I only lost a bit on the transaction.
So we got on the free – yes, it was free – ferry. Once settled we decided to strike out to see Amsterdam. We looked at buildings and tried to take heed of the warning – Many a vacation has been ruined by a silent bike or tram. Look both ways when crossing streets. Amazing how hard it was to attend to the small bikes in one direction after maneuvering around a large tram from another.
We decided to get some snacks for dinner and head back to the Botel for an early sleep. We were about to pay at the checkout when the store went dark with a snap. It was very sad to leave the goodies on the counter and be shooed out of the store but we all need to deal with life’s small disasters and I suppose that they often do accost us one after another.
Day 2
I think that this day is mostly photographs to go on Flickr. We had a great meal on the roof of the public Library and went to 2 museums. When we come back in 2 weeks we’ll take a canal cruise and rent bikes. That is, if I can get Steuben Trust to allow my bank card to work.
Day 3 – at Sea on the Celebrity Century
Our cabin is very nice. The wood furniture is rich and we have so much storage that there are 4 empty drawers and 2 empty shelves. They are small drawers and shelves but still all our things have a place and there is room to spare and it looks nice. The cabin feels large though it’s a mystery where people put their large suitcases. Our small bags fit in the closets.
Cabin aside, the ship is a disappointment. There is no promenade deck. One holds that name but there is no place where one can walk laps. There’s a jogging track up on deck 14 but the wind is tremendous and we don’t want to jog. If we did it would require 14 laps per mile. There are treadmills but the walking gait isn’t the same and so they don’t do the trick for us.
The library here is about 1/10 the size of the library on the Volendam which is a smaller ship – 500 fewer passengers. The Volendam had nearly as many travel reference books as this library has fiction and this library is only fiction. There are no daily papers and no magazines that we have found here.
There is no self service laundry. The Volendam had them on all cabin floors and it was great to do a quick ironing touch-up or a load of underwear and socks. We talked with others who said that this is the first cruise they’ve had without self service laundry. Since we, or more accurately since I am basically cheap and fussy of my laundry soap this is a problem the solution to which is rinsing out clothing at night and hanging them in the shower or over the back of a chair.
The Volendam (our ship for 3 other cruises) crew took us on behind the scenes tours into the kitchens and behind stage and such but here that only happens for a fee. There’s a self guided art tour onboard but I tried diligently to find the works and failed. Niches are empty and works are inside of restaurants that are only open now and then and nobody knew (including an officer and the main desk) that there should be an original Picasso somewhere.
Our waiter is attentive and helpful but I am unable to convey to him that I would like a dessert without milk. He offers gluten free and sugar free but the concept of milk-free dessert does not exist in his world.
Day 4 – Germany
We might have gone to Berlin while the ship was docked in Warnemunde but the tour was $300+ per person for the day and involved 6 hours in a train so we took a self guided tour of Rostock and intended to make it back in time to see Warnemunde too.
In the cruise ship terminal we purchased Rostok value cards for 7 Euros. These gave us the use of all local trains and trams for the day and entry or discounted entry into several places in both towns as well as details for the train and tram and maps of both areas. The train was a double decker that ran every 15 minutes all the time and the line was thoroughly decorated with graffiti festooned pipes and overpasses.
I took a photo of a huge apartment with sunflower motif mosaic tiles on the entire wall. Another apartment complex was decorated in the same way with a starburst. It’s nice to see such large scale art where a plain cinderblock wall would do the functional job. There isn’t enough public art in the world.
Rostok was easily walkable. Well, the distances were easy to walk. The cobblestones, no so much. Ankle twisters they are and while concentrating on one’s footfall it is also necessary to watch for the silent bikes and trams as it was in Amsterdam.
The town square was huge and held an open market for fruit, vegetables, meats and cheese and also for cooked food including fried potatoes, wienersnitzel, sausage and drinks. The sausage looks like overlong hot dogs and are offered in up to half meter lengths with or without curry sauce.
The buildings looked a lot like those in Amsterdam with those great shapes on the roof tops. The town hall was built in 1270 and then 2 neighboring houses were attached to it. The jail was in the bottom floors and the remaining building areas held offices, a market and wine cellars. The renovation was lovely and it’s possible to look through heavy glass panels on the floor to see the huge wooden beam that form the skeleton of the original building.
A traditional building material is brick. Sometimes the brick is glazed black or white or cream. The most common is black and it is used with red in alternating rows. There is also a traditional pattern called the German string which puts the brick at an angle so that a corner points outward and the negative space between is a v-shape. The lighthouse in Warenemunde is made of cream and white glazed brick and several old buildings in Rostock are of the red and black brick. When the East German communist party took over the old styles and indeed old buildings were not honored. They particularly blew up churches. They (the city planners) did not just take buildings down. They blew them up and, as I said, particularly churches. It seems a pity to blow up a thousand year old church or anything.
St. Mary’s church was not torn down. It continues to stand and house an astronomic al clock built in 1200 and still running. Every couple hundred years they have to repaint the part of the dial concerning the year. At this point that dial holds 1885 to 2017. It chimes on the hour and once a day an apostle marches out and bows to Jesus. While I saw nothing move I did record a lovely set of bells and one can hear the gears churning away in the background. Happily the organ rehearsal stopped to allow the chime of the bells.
We also found St. Peter’s church, long the tallest tower in the town so the beacon for fishermen to return to port. We took an elevator to the top of the tower. The elevator was oddly placed just inside the front door so that was smack in the line of vision when entering the church door but when we climbed down the steps we were really happy it was there to take us up. In the tower a massive web of timber climbs to the top of the spire above while 12 windows offer a view of the town from every direction. On the way down we found a bit of a crack in the tower wall – the kind that allows daylight to peep in. It didn’t seem an ideal situation for a church, or any brick, wall.
Climbing down was easy at first with normal stairs but at the end we had to go down the 800 year old, small spiral steps, gripping tightly to a thick, dirty, white rope.
When we returned to Warenmunde the E-café was closed as was the lighthouse. The mini train was parked for the night and we were tired from walking on cobblestones so we missed most of the town.
Stockholm
The seagulls escorted the ship into the harbor here, swirling and crying for bits of food thrown by passengers (forbidden by the captain), blown from dishes on the veranda or churned up by the ship as it passed in the water. There are white gulls whose wings cross at the end and wear an orange spot on the center, lower beak as well as brown gull with unadorned beaks that hide their wing tips when they walk. All of them turn their heads and fix their eyes on this and that with jerked movements and call out demands, “Mine. Mine.”
The many islands along the shipping lane have trees, small cottages, large houses and rocky cheeks. In the water the smaller cruise ships from the Viking Line bring passengers back and forth from Finland to Sweden on overnight shopping/drinking jaunts. Rick’ s guide book claims that the ships stop briefly at some non-European Union Islands so that the trip becomes international and thereby the shopping tax free and this makes the jaunt very popular.
I might add here that the Dutch spell island without the “s” in a very reasonable and enviable manner.
Our ship docked flawlessly. It is amazing to experience such delicate control over a huge, or as our neighbor Gail has aid, ginormous vessel. The nose goes dock ward first and a rope is tossed to the dock with the aid of a small ball tied to it. Then the dock men strain to pull the light rope in order to pull the heavy rope out of the water and loop it onto the rope goes over it thing. As they pull the rope forward, the rear of the ship moves in line all so slowly and gently that there is no perception of movement on the ship.
We chose to go on our own so left the ship for the public ferry which took us directly to the Vasa museum. We passed some cranes painted to look like giraffes. I love that stuff. Did the company pay workers to do that? Did some artist ask to be allowed? Is the giraffe’s head ever in the way? Was it done for tourists, for fun or as a lost bet? Whatever the start, the tradition continues. The cranes are giraffes.
The Vasa museum building is irregularly shaped with ship’s masts through the roof. It was once a dry dock but the Vasa was towed into it; the water drained and a museum built around it.
Here’s the story of the Vasa. In 1628 Sweden was at war with Poland and the king chose to have a special war ship built with two rows of cannons for power and hundreds of carvings for beauty. The ship was well under construction when the king demanded more canons. More canons were brought but the ship builders were concerned. They had tested the ship in the usual way. 30 seamen stood on one side and ran together to the other side and turned and ran back to check the stability. Generally the exercise involved running back and forth 10 times. If the ship didn’t capsize, it was stable.
The seamen on the Vasa were stopped after 3 runs because the ship began to tilt too much. The ballast added to counteract for the extra canons was insufficient but the king was waiting for the ship to pick him up – a colorful and powerful chariot of glory on the sea.
The sailors were allowed to bring their families onboard for the short trip in Stockholm to pick up provisions. It was a glorious, clear day. They opened all the cannon doors and began to sail. The wind picked up and tilted the ship. The insufficient ballast consisted of round rocks that rolled to one side causing more of a problem and then the open cannon doors allowed cold Baltic waters to enter. In 20 minutes the ship was sunk along with 30 or so people, two of them a man and woman in embrace.
The water was only 30 meters deep but the ship fell on its side so was totally under water for 333 years. In 1640 (or so – not quite sure) an effort was made to raise the ship but all that was accomplished was to stand it upright and to reclaim the canons and the masts. The technology for raising a ship was not at hand.
The ship was joined with wooden pegs and iron nails. Where the parts were held with wooden peg, it pretty much stayed together. The iron nails rusted and the smaller parts fell to the ocean mud where they were preserved. The ship was found in the late 1950 and what was pulled to the surface were over 14,000 parts of the ultimate jigsaw puzzle.
The ship is preserved and reassembled, a process that took several years. Iron picks were used to line up old nail holes and put parts back together. Some parts were reproduced and fitted in but these are easy to see. The old are rough and the new are smooth. 95% is original. The carvings include Roman warriors, lions, coats of arms, and mythical creatures such as mermaids and tritons.
There is a reconstructed below decks area with roughly formed, full-sized statues of men and reproduced cannons so that visitors can walk through and get a sense of the space. A model stands in full sail and in full color to help understand what a masterpiece the Vasa was. A film explains a lot of the project and English tours are given regularly by lovely Swedish guides.
Our next stop was the Nordiska Museet just behind the Vasa. It was a gorgeous building with samples of folk art and table settings, clothing and furniture, photographs and toys. I learned several things such as in the 1500s when guests came to dinner they brought their own cutlery. The main focus for art and entertainment is the wedding or the funeral. Both bring large numbers of people together to see or use things and to eat. The Sami are the main indigenous people in Norway and they care for reindeer herds. The Chernobyl disaster disrupted their lively hoods for a long while. People wouldn’t buy reindeer meat for fear of contamination. Even now, the reindeer are fed food brought to them rather than being allowed to graze where Chernobyl’s fall out has contaminated.
This is a Sami poem about floods.
Violated Village – In agony the village breathes – flees in terror from new waters – the water rises high toward the settlements – With toil the dwellings are moved – smooth slopes, green pastures – they must leave with a heavy heart.
Punch (water, sugar, tea, lemon and arrack) was originally for men only and was served hot or cold with cigars at card games. Tea was for ladies but servants could take used tea leaves to brew their own teas.
At the turn of the century it was acceptable to invite people for coffee rather than for a full dinner. Coffee meant at least 7 kind of cake or cookies and the guest had to taste them all.
In the garden in front of the Nordic Museum a bronze Jenny Lind sits in a ruffled skirt. The lovely gardens are segregated by color with the purple being my favorite.
We finished our short time with a full circle around the harbor taking photos of gorgeous buildings, including the palace. The cruise schedule allows for only short visits in each city and the time goes quickly.
I did learn that the expensive – to me they seem expensive at $70 to $300 per person for a tour – tours offered by the ship include an hour or more shopping in selected stores. It seems a waste of time to shop where there are only 6 hours or so to see a major city. So many lovely places to see and so little time because it’s a big deal to miss the ship.
Helsinki
We started with the Sunday morning Flea Market, Rumble Sale, Boot Sale in a square midway between the cruise ship dock and mid city. It was a small area with people set up with tables but also with a great number of clothing racks. I would say that nearly every [person was selling clothing and not a few things had sequins or some sort of glitter. There were shoes and ties and the very best Scrooge McDuck statue I ever saw. It would have been great to toss in the back of the car and drag home for a joke for Rick and maybe for a garden piece later but the operative word here is drag and there is only so much dragging home can be done. The Mickey and Mini Mouse clocks were a hoot.
Rick liked an antique knife and also a set of weights (the largest was a KG itself) and also an old set of ice skates but all he bought was a donut. It’s easy to like things and smile at them but the carrying home sets the bar pretty high for actual purchases.
There were a great number of books for adults and children and sparkly sneakers and scarves and plates and goblets and sorts of things one could never get home in one piece. The prices were really low and the shoppers numerous and enthusiastic.
Our first stop was the Church of the Rock which was blasted out of a huge rock in the 60s. Entry to the church was free but the use of the rest room was 1 Euro. (Rick and I paid $3 between us to pee. He said it cost more to pee than to drink.) There was a sweet organ there and pulpit had a green cloth draped over it that ended with plants growing at the base. The dome is copper outside and 15 miles of copper ribbon inside. There’s a full balcony for the church and outside it’s okay to climb the rocks though not to climb on the actual dome.
The Lutheran Cathedral was topped with the most brilliant onion domes. We couldn’t figure how they got them so shinny. Inside it was open floor or folding chairs but ornate altars and things on the walls.
The Russian Church was filled with pews with closed sides. It was necessary to open the gate to walk into the pew. The organ was massive and ornate. The whole thing was pretty ornate or I thought so till we found another church where there couldn’t have been one more bit of folderol squeezed in with a shoe horn. In this church there had just been a concert and the microphones and sound equipment were being put up and CDs were still for sale.
That’s about all we had time for in Helsinki though we took photos of lovely buildings – lots of them art novo. We did again manage not to be smashed by a silent tram and hardly saw any bikes at all.
We parked in Rochester at the $15 per week parking lot at the entrance to the airport. There were only a few empty spaces and that’s the most packed we’ve ever seen it. We rolled past the gas station and across the street through the official parking lot and checked our bags to JFK. That was the last easy part of the trip.
In JFK the check in line was huge – a human snake of luggage, squirming children, exhausted adults and very serious faces. It seems that Friday’s 3:40 flight had been cancelled so an entire plane load of we’ve-been-waiting-for -24 hours-people stood demanding attention and transportation to Amsterdam in addition to the already booked plane load of we’re-going-to-Amsterdam-on-Saturday-people.
There were computer check-in kiosks for the regular Saturday flight and another group for the rescheduled people who would leave at 4:40. A person led us to the 3:40 line and Rick entered our information. The machine spit out 2 boarding passes. While we were trying to move into a line to check the luggage a man called my name. He had our luggage tags and while I was being amazed about the speed of his finding us he said, “Look at this mess.”
It was a mess. The floor was covered with people and suitcases. There were lines crossing lines. There were throngs of people; hordes of passengers; seething pools of frustration pulling wheeled suitcases.
The representative continued, “It’s because of these self-serve computer kiosks,” he fumed. “They fired people, added computers and ruined our system. They cut costs and piled on the work. They’ve ruined everything.”
I hardly dared to talk with him. He was so frustrated and exhausted. He put the tags on our suitcases and sent us to join a line for the self serve suitcase security. The passengers in that line were possessive of their bit of floor space and shooed us away. We tried to find the end of the line for the 3:40 flight and when we found someone set to go at 4:40 they let us in. We didn’t have as much time as they did, right?
There were 2 x-ray machines and 2 exhausted people feeding them suitcases. The machine would slowly pull a suitcase inside, examine it and shove it out the back with a vehement kick that rocked the entire machine. With a mix of faith and hope we left our bags there and went to the gate.
We boarded the plane a little behind schedule and then sat there on the tarmac. What was going on? When the captain spoke about a half hour later I expected him to say something cheerful like that the plane would be pulled to the taxi way but, nope. Instead he told us a little story about the cancelled flight on Friday and the rescheduling of flights that was done without a provision for food for an extra plane. That “extra” plane had food but we did not. He hoped the wait would be short but in the meantime the crew would serve what they had and he’d have them start the in-flight film.
The crew had apple juice, orange juice and water. They said that there was no food at all but we learned later that first class folk had wine and nuts.
The half hour grew to 2 hours when the captain announced the wait would be at least 90 minutes longer. The groans and complaints swelled. People were missing connecting flights. Babies declined to be patient. Everyone was getting hungry and stiff and they weren’t even getting anywhere for it.
Likely someone asked if we couldn’t just take the food from the 4:40 flight and we were told not to be jealous. That flight hadn’t taken off either. They were without a full crew to serve “our” food so they were sitting and waiting also. Was that true or a clever bit of spin?
To forestall mutiny, the captain arranged $10 food vouchers for each of us and called the buses back to take us to the terminal to amuse ourselves. On the way out we passed the first class folk eating nuts and drinking wine. Rick and I got to the door in time to find the first bus had filled and gone so we stayed there and talked. One of the crew echoed the frustration of the luggage-tag man. People were cut from the workforce. Workloads were doubled. People were exhausted from working past the breaking point, forgetting things, making mistakes. “It can’t go on like this,” she said.
The bit of JFK that we were able to walk through had a couple of rest rooms; a Hudson; a coffee shop and a Chinese restaurant. The vouchers were good at the coffee shop and restaurant only. The staff there wasn’t prepared for an extra planeload of people all at once.
Rick and I went to the coffee shop and easily spent our $20 on not much food but it was better than sitting on the plane. Still the problems continued. When we got back on the plane the food still had not arrived. It really made sense when we thought of the task of making meals for 150 people while trying to stay on schedule for all the other planes.
The food finally arrived at about 9 pm but by then we were blocked in by another plane so they had to take away the boarding ladder, tow the plane and then tow us out to where we could join the queue waiting to take off and that finally happened at about 10 p.m. – 6 hours later than scheduled. The flight was only 6 hours and 25 minutes so this was like double duty in that seat. I will admit that we arrived with our luggage but we lost half day in Amsterdam.
Instead of getting to Amsterdam at 6 a.m., we arrived after noon expecting to roll right out to the Botel. Once we bought train tickets we easily made it to Central Station and it should have been an easy walk to the Botel but, and who could be prepared for this, they moved it. A regular Hotel is quite attached to the ground and unlikely to change addresses but a Botel can move across a river. Instead of walking we had to take a ferry.
Someone told us to take the ferry on the left but she meant the left most of the 4 blue and white ferrys and not the green ferry that was all the way to the left of the pier. I bought a pair of tickets for the greens (at a computer kiosk with no people and not much English). When I realized that they were the wrong tickets, I tried to sell them to someone else. The first few people wanted round trip but we had one way and then the next bunch of people wanted children’s tickets and we had adults. I finally found a pair of women who wanted them but I couldn’t make change so they dug in their purses for coins and I only lost a bit on the transaction.
So we got on the free – yes, it was free – ferry. Once settled we decided to strike out to see Amsterdam. We looked at buildings and tried to take heed of the warning – Many a vacation has been ruined by a silent bike or tram. Look both ways when crossing streets. Amazing how hard it was to attend to the small bikes in one direction after maneuvering around a large tram from another.
We decided to get some snacks for dinner and head back to the Botel for an early sleep. We were about to pay at the checkout when the store went dark with a snap. It was very sad to leave the goodies on the counter and be shooed out of the store but we all need to deal with life’s small disasters and I suppose that they often do accost us one after another.
Day 2
I think that this day is mostly photographs to go on Flickr. We had a great meal on the roof of the public Library and went to 2 museums. When we come back in 2 weeks we’ll take a canal cruise and rent bikes. That is, if I can get Steuben Trust to allow my bank card to work.
Day 3 – at Sea on the Celebrity Century
Our cabin is very nice. The wood furniture is rich and we have so much storage that there are 4 empty drawers and 2 empty shelves. They are small drawers and shelves but still all our things have a place and there is room to spare and it looks nice. The cabin feels large though it’s a mystery where people put their large suitcases. Our small bags fit in the closets.
Cabin aside, the ship is a disappointment. There is no promenade deck. One holds that name but there is no place where one can walk laps. There’s a jogging track up on deck 14 but the wind is tremendous and we don’t want to jog. If we did it would require 14 laps per mile. There are treadmills but the walking gait isn’t the same and so they don’t do the trick for us.
The library here is about 1/10 the size of the library on the Volendam which is a smaller ship – 500 fewer passengers. The Volendam had nearly as many travel reference books as this library has fiction and this library is only fiction. There are no daily papers and no magazines that we have found here.
There is no self service laundry. The Volendam had them on all cabin floors and it was great to do a quick ironing touch-up or a load of underwear and socks. We talked with others who said that this is the first cruise they’ve had without self service laundry. Since we, or more accurately since I am basically cheap and fussy of my laundry soap this is a problem the solution to which is rinsing out clothing at night and hanging them in the shower or over the back of a chair.
The Volendam (our ship for 3 other cruises) crew took us on behind the scenes tours into the kitchens and behind stage and such but here that only happens for a fee. There’s a self guided art tour onboard but I tried diligently to find the works and failed. Niches are empty and works are inside of restaurants that are only open now and then and nobody knew (including an officer and the main desk) that there should be an original Picasso somewhere.
Our waiter is attentive and helpful but I am unable to convey to him that I would like a dessert without milk. He offers gluten free and sugar free but the concept of milk-free dessert does not exist in his world.
Day 4 – Germany
We might have gone to Berlin while the ship was docked in Warnemunde but the tour was $300+ per person for the day and involved 6 hours in a train so we took a self guided tour of Rostock and intended to make it back in time to see Warnemunde too.
In the cruise ship terminal we purchased Rostok value cards for 7 Euros. These gave us the use of all local trains and trams for the day and entry or discounted entry into several places in both towns as well as details for the train and tram and maps of both areas. The train was a double decker that ran every 15 minutes all the time and the line was thoroughly decorated with graffiti festooned pipes and overpasses.
I took a photo of a huge apartment with sunflower motif mosaic tiles on the entire wall. Another apartment complex was decorated in the same way with a starburst. It’s nice to see such large scale art where a plain cinderblock wall would do the functional job. There isn’t enough public art in the world.
Rostok was easily walkable. Well, the distances were easy to walk. The cobblestones, no so much. Ankle twisters they are and while concentrating on one’s footfall it is also necessary to watch for the silent bikes and trams as it was in Amsterdam.
The town square was huge and held an open market for fruit, vegetables, meats and cheese and also for cooked food including fried potatoes, wienersnitzel, sausage and drinks. The sausage looks like overlong hot dogs and are offered in up to half meter lengths with or without curry sauce.
The buildings looked a lot like those in Amsterdam with those great shapes on the roof tops. The town hall was built in 1270 and then 2 neighboring houses were attached to it. The jail was in the bottom floors and the remaining building areas held offices, a market and wine cellars. The renovation was lovely and it’s possible to look through heavy glass panels on the floor to see the huge wooden beam that form the skeleton of the original building.
A traditional building material is brick. Sometimes the brick is glazed black or white or cream. The most common is black and it is used with red in alternating rows. There is also a traditional pattern called the German string which puts the brick at an angle so that a corner points outward and the negative space between is a v-shape. The lighthouse in Warenemunde is made of cream and white glazed brick and several old buildings in Rostock are of the red and black brick. When the East German communist party took over the old styles and indeed old buildings were not honored. They particularly blew up churches. They (the city planners) did not just take buildings down. They blew them up and, as I said, particularly churches. It seems a pity to blow up a thousand year old church or anything.
St. Mary’s church was not torn down. It continues to stand and house an astronomic al clock built in 1200 and still running. Every couple hundred years they have to repaint the part of the dial concerning the year. At this point that dial holds 1885 to 2017. It chimes on the hour and once a day an apostle marches out and bows to Jesus. While I saw nothing move I did record a lovely set of bells and one can hear the gears churning away in the background. Happily the organ rehearsal stopped to allow the chime of the bells.
We also found St. Peter’s church, long the tallest tower in the town so the beacon for fishermen to return to port. We took an elevator to the top of the tower. The elevator was oddly placed just inside the front door so that was smack in the line of vision when entering the church door but when we climbed down the steps we were really happy it was there to take us up. In the tower a massive web of timber climbs to the top of the spire above while 12 windows offer a view of the town from every direction. On the way down we found a bit of a crack in the tower wall – the kind that allows daylight to peep in. It didn’t seem an ideal situation for a church, or any brick, wall.
Climbing down was easy at first with normal stairs but at the end we had to go down the 800 year old, small spiral steps, gripping tightly to a thick, dirty, white rope.
When we returned to Warenmunde the E-café was closed as was the lighthouse. The mini train was parked for the night and we were tired from walking on cobblestones so we missed most of the town.
Stockholm
The seagulls escorted the ship into the harbor here, swirling and crying for bits of food thrown by passengers (forbidden by the captain), blown from dishes on the veranda or churned up by the ship as it passed in the water. There are white gulls whose wings cross at the end and wear an orange spot on the center, lower beak as well as brown gull with unadorned beaks that hide their wing tips when they walk. All of them turn their heads and fix their eyes on this and that with jerked movements and call out demands, “Mine. Mine.”
The many islands along the shipping lane have trees, small cottages, large houses and rocky cheeks. In the water the smaller cruise ships from the Viking Line bring passengers back and forth from Finland to Sweden on overnight shopping/drinking jaunts. Rick’ s guide book claims that the ships stop briefly at some non-European Union Islands so that the trip becomes international and thereby the shopping tax free and this makes the jaunt very popular.
I might add here that the Dutch spell island without the “s” in a very reasonable and enviable manner.
Our ship docked flawlessly. It is amazing to experience such delicate control over a huge, or as our neighbor Gail has aid, ginormous vessel. The nose goes dock ward first and a rope is tossed to the dock with the aid of a small ball tied to it. Then the dock men strain to pull the light rope in order to pull the heavy rope out of the water and loop it onto the rope goes over it thing. As they pull the rope forward, the rear of the ship moves in line all so slowly and gently that there is no perception of movement on the ship.
We chose to go on our own so left the ship for the public ferry which took us directly to the Vasa museum. We passed some cranes painted to look like giraffes. I love that stuff. Did the company pay workers to do that? Did some artist ask to be allowed? Is the giraffe’s head ever in the way? Was it done for tourists, for fun or as a lost bet? Whatever the start, the tradition continues. The cranes are giraffes.
The Vasa museum building is irregularly shaped with ship’s masts through the roof. It was once a dry dock but the Vasa was towed into it; the water drained and a museum built around it.
Here’s the story of the Vasa. In 1628 Sweden was at war with Poland and the king chose to have a special war ship built with two rows of cannons for power and hundreds of carvings for beauty. The ship was well under construction when the king demanded more canons. More canons were brought but the ship builders were concerned. They had tested the ship in the usual way. 30 seamen stood on one side and ran together to the other side and turned and ran back to check the stability. Generally the exercise involved running back and forth 10 times. If the ship didn’t capsize, it was stable.
The seamen on the Vasa were stopped after 3 runs because the ship began to tilt too much. The ballast added to counteract for the extra canons was insufficient but the king was waiting for the ship to pick him up – a colorful and powerful chariot of glory on the sea.
The sailors were allowed to bring their families onboard for the short trip in Stockholm to pick up provisions. It was a glorious, clear day. They opened all the cannon doors and began to sail. The wind picked up and tilted the ship. The insufficient ballast consisted of round rocks that rolled to one side causing more of a problem and then the open cannon doors allowed cold Baltic waters to enter. In 20 minutes the ship was sunk along with 30 or so people, two of them a man and woman in embrace.
The water was only 30 meters deep but the ship fell on its side so was totally under water for 333 years. In 1640 (or so – not quite sure) an effort was made to raise the ship but all that was accomplished was to stand it upright and to reclaim the canons and the masts. The technology for raising a ship was not at hand.
The ship was joined with wooden pegs and iron nails. Where the parts were held with wooden peg, it pretty much stayed together. The iron nails rusted and the smaller parts fell to the ocean mud where they were preserved. The ship was found in the late 1950 and what was pulled to the surface were over 14,000 parts of the ultimate jigsaw puzzle.
The ship is preserved and reassembled, a process that took several years. Iron picks were used to line up old nail holes and put parts back together. Some parts were reproduced and fitted in but these are easy to see. The old are rough and the new are smooth. 95% is original. The carvings include Roman warriors, lions, coats of arms, and mythical creatures such as mermaids and tritons.
There is a reconstructed below decks area with roughly formed, full-sized statues of men and reproduced cannons so that visitors can walk through and get a sense of the space. A model stands in full sail and in full color to help understand what a masterpiece the Vasa was. A film explains a lot of the project and English tours are given regularly by lovely Swedish guides.
Our next stop was the Nordiska Museet just behind the Vasa. It was a gorgeous building with samples of folk art and table settings, clothing and furniture, photographs and toys. I learned several things such as in the 1500s when guests came to dinner they brought their own cutlery. The main focus for art and entertainment is the wedding or the funeral. Both bring large numbers of people together to see or use things and to eat. The Sami are the main indigenous people in Norway and they care for reindeer herds. The Chernobyl disaster disrupted their lively hoods for a long while. People wouldn’t buy reindeer meat for fear of contamination. Even now, the reindeer are fed food brought to them rather than being allowed to graze where Chernobyl’s fall out has contaminated.
This is a Sami poem about floods.
Violated Village – In agony the village breathes – flees in terror from new waters – the water rises high toward the settlements – With toil the dwellings are moved – smooth slopes, green pastures – they must leave with a heavy heart.
Punch (water, sugar, tea, lemon and arrack) was originally for men only and was served hot or cold with cigars at card games. Tea was for ladies but servants could take used tea leaves to brew their own teas.
At the turn of the century it was acceptable to invite people for coffee rather than for a full dinner. Coffee meant at least 7 kind of cake or cookies and the guest had to taste them all.
In the garden in front of the Nordic Museum a bronze Jenny Lind sits in a ruffled skirt. The lovely gardens are segregated by color with the purple being my favorite.
We finished our short time with a full circle around the harbor taking photos of gorgeous buildings, including the palace. The cruise schedule allows for only short visits in each city and the time goes quickly.
I did learn that the expensive – to me they seem expensive at $70 to $300 per person for a tour – tours offered by the ship include an hour or more shopping in selected stores. It seems a waste of time to shop where there are only 6 hours or so to see a major city. So many lovely places to see and so little time because it’s a big deal to miss the ship.
Helsinki
We started with the Sunday morning Flea Market, Rumble Sale, Boot Sale in a square midway between the cruise ship dock and mid city. It was a small area with people set up with tables but also with a great number of clothing racks. I would say that nearly every [person was selling clothing and not a few things had sequins or some sort of glitter. There were shoes and ties and the very best Scrooge McDuck statue I ever saw. It would have been great to toss in the back of the car and drag home for a joke for Rick and maybe for a garden piece later but the operative word here is drag and there is only so much dragging home can be done. The Mickey and Mini Mouse clocks were a hoot.
Rick liked an antique knife and also a set of weights (the largest was a KG itself) and also an old set of ice skates but all he bought was a donut. It’s easy to like things and smile at them but the carrying home sets the bar pretty high for actual purchases.
There were a great number of books for adults and children and sparkly sneakers and scarves and plates and goblets and sorts of things one could never get home in one piece. The prices were really low and the shoppers numerous and enthusiastic.
Our first stop was the Church of the Rock which was blasted out of a huge rock in the 60s. Entry to the church was free but the use of the rest room was 1 Euro. (Rick and I paid $3 between us to pee. He said it cost more to pee than to drink.) There was a sweet organ there and pulpit had a green cloth draped over it that ended with plants growing at the base. The dome is copper outside and 15 miles of copper ribbon inside. There’s a full balcony for the church and outside it’s okay to climb the rocks though not to climb on the actual dome.
The Lutheran Cathedral was topped with the most brilliant onion domes. We couldn’t figure how they got them so shinny. Inside it was open floor or folding chairs but ornate altars and things on the walls.
The Russian Church was filled with pews with closed sides. It was necessary to open the gate to walk into the pew. The organ was massive and ornate. The whole thing was pretty ornate or I thought so till we found another church where there couldn’t have been one more bit of folderol squeezed in with a shoe horn. In this church there had just been a concert and the microphones and sound equipment were being put up and CDs were still for sale.
That’s about all we had time for in Helsinki though we took photos of lovely buildings – lots of them art novo. We did again manage not to be smashed by a silent tram and hardly saw any bikes at all.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Story Jar: Metro One, Budapest
Metro One, Budapest
Hungary, 2007: Subways are great. I say that with all sincerity right now because we stayed out too late and missed the last train to our hotel so had to hike a considerable number of blocks across the city.
Budapest is actually two cities (Buda and Pest) divided by the Danube River, a body of water without a hint of blue. It’s easy to get around Budapest on the Metro lines, the trolleys or the buses. We used the Metro for several days and took it for granted until tonight.
We boarded on the red line and meant to transfer to Metro 1 but when we started up the stairs a woman at the top shouted a string of Magyar (Hungarian) to which we responded with blank stares. She then said, “Finished.” That we understood. Didn’t like it but understood so we exited the station and pulled out the worn map that Em and Josh’s had given to us. We had to hike a distance equivalent to 7 stations on Metro 1. We walked down the wide center avenue on a clear, spring evening talking about the yellow line, Metro 1. It’s a gem.
It’s a series of Little-Engine-that-Could trains with sweet, small yellow cars that arrive every 2 or 3 minutes all day long with seating for 16 and, the poster says, standing room for 50 more. (I would challenge that because we were on a full car once and I counted 24 standing passengers with virtually no room between elbows and bags. There is no way another 26 passengers could have gotten on without some sitting on others’ shoulders.)
Hungary had the first underground system in Europe and while I don’t know that Metro 1 is part of that first construction, it certainly has the hand-crafted look of an earlier time. Metro 1 has oak doors, steel pillars with art deco tops and two-toned ceramic walls. We particularly liked that the Metro 1 cars play a happy little tune when entering stations, as if they are pleased once more to make it out of the dark tunnel.
When we arrived in Budapest we purchased a one week pass. We each carried a tiny, colorful ticket entitling us to ride any of the trains, trolleys or buses in either Buda or Pest. The tickets don’t open gates or pass under scanners. It almost seems as if a person could get around without a ticket but at any time while on the system, someone with a transit system armband might ask to see the ticket and if it isn’t produced, they collect a large fine right there. If a person has neither ticket nor money, the transit officials may confiscate anything that the person does have and hold it ransom until the fine is paid. There’s no messing around.
The system is the same in Prague where we were asked for our tickets several times. Generally tickets were checked on the bus. Not only did we always have our tickets but every person around us during those checks also produced one so we never witnessed a problem in Prague but in Budapest we saw three people pay fines. To say they looked glum would understate their appearance.
On the night of the long walk, this night of the missed train, we witnessed such a fine on the red line. We walked into the station at nearly 11 p.m. when 3 officials asked for our tickets. Rick pulled them out of his pocket and we were nodded onward. A train had just come into the station, disgorging an assortment of passengers – a band with trombone, guitar and sax, a man with a suitcase and a number of couples. These people were also stopped by the transit officials and the man with the suitcase had no ticket so one officer scribbled out a citation. The man handed over several bills, took his receipt and wheeled his suitcase out of the station unhappy to have taken such an expensive ride.
We had time to watch all of this because we had an enormous ten-minute wait before our large, modern train arrived with screeching brakes. That train took us to the station where the woman told us that the service was finished for the night.
We spent the next 20 minutes walking and missing the wonderful, yellow Metro 1 trains.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Antoni Gaudi
Jean Miro and Antoni Gaudi
While in Barcelona, we went to the much-lauded Jean Miro museum where we were much disappointed. After being inside comfortable and interesting Gaudi buildings, the Miro felt, sounded and looked harsh, angular and rough. The sounds of people moving and talking became as prickly as the cacti on the hill we had just gotten lost on. The temporary installation on the lower level included staccato music that bounced like verbal glass shards and after a while sitting in the museum made contemplating anything other than the fact that Gaudi could have made a great museum instead of having construction crews pour a pile of concrete walls and floors.
I can’t say that Miro's work soared above the building. The large weaving near the entry was impressive and a two sided tile had nice color and texture on the hidden side. The egg sculptures here and there were pleasing and some of the landscapes were pleasant enough but the black and white “fireworks” and the contemplation for a recluse (or something like that) were depressing and many of the works were titled “painting”. Was that the best he could do?
Person after person walked through whispering “Brilliant” and I didn't get it. Couldn't even figure out what "it" was.
When we were in the Gaudi buildings, the rooms were easily as densely populated as the rooms in the Miro yet the noise in Gaudi-spaces was always a dissipated hum. The rounded corners and doorways didn’t bat the sounds around as if they were huge wings on pinball machines but they guided voices to listeners and absorbed footfalls. The Gaudi buildings were designed to be comfortable and to provide for the flow of air and sound. The art museum was designed as a surface for display with no thought for the comfort of visitors or workers.
Casa Batllo was marvelous with shiny tiles, unexpected door panels, curved wood work, stained glass windows, fish scale details on walls, a mushroom-shaped nook with a chocolate brown fireplace and ceilings that swirl.
La Paderera is a mass of creativity and comfort. It's modern but ageless and nothing if not different.
Having said that, Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's cathedral, isn’t my favorite place. Eighth wonder of the world though it may become when finished in 2050, I find the facade of the Nativity to be roughly swirled – a concrete head with naturally curly hair that has been in humidity and wind for 100 years already and twists in every direction with no pattern or place for the eye to rest. Rick says it is like a super large candle that has melted and dripped and then solidified into a huge waxy glob.
The spires are impressive and I think I like the multicolored fruits and eyes of god on top of them but there is so very much happening on the exterior walls that just looking at the shapes and shadows might drive a person mad. How did the workers ever manage to create it?
Inside it’s different. There are many calm surfaces and great stained glass colors and more stained glass to come in the next 4 decades and the massive amount of materials (rock, concrete, steel, glass, marbles from around Europe) staggers the mind as does the idea that the cathedral has been in progress since 1888 and won’t be finished for another 43 years.
It’s exciting to see a cathedral be constructed because it is such a massive and complex object. It’s an interesting project. Outside there's a lot of this and that - stuff I won’t live to see finished to make a final assessment. Inside, I like it. The columns have lines from floor to ceiling. The exterior walls are clearly defined and the stained glass installed so far puts blurs of orange and blue across people and floors. Again, hordes of people stand, walk and explore while construction workers pursue their tasks but the noise is never deafening and there are lots of shapes to look at and enjoy with places to draw the eye onward as well as to give allow pause. Inside, it feels like Gaudi while outside it's gaudy but everywhere it's a heck of a building.
While in Barcelona, we went to the much-lauded Jean Miro museum where we were much disappointed. After being inside comfortable and interesting Gaudi buildings, the Miro felt, sounded and looked harsh, angular and rough. The sounds of people moving and talking became as prickly as the cacti on the hill we had just gotten lost on. The temporary installation on the lower level included staccato music that bounced like verbal glass shards and after a while sitting in the museum made contemplating anything other than the fact that Gaudi could have made a great museum instead of having construction crews pour a pile of concrete walls and floors.
I can’t say that Miro's work soared above the building. The large weaving near the entry was impressive and a two sided tile had nice color and texture on the hidden side. The egg sculptures here and there were pleasing and some of the landscapes were pleasant enough but the black and white “fireworks” and the contemplation for a recluse (or something like that) were depressing and many of the works were titled “painting”. Was that the best he could do?
Person after person walked through whispering “Brilliant” and I didn't get it. Couldn't even figure out what "it" was.
When we were in the Gaudi buildings, the rooms were easily as densely populated as the rooms in the Miro yet the noise in Gaudi-spaces was always a dissipated hum. The rounded corners and doorways didn’t bat the sounds around as if they were huge wings on pinball machines but they guided voices to listeners and absorbed footfalls. The Gaudi buildings were designed to be comfortable and to provide for the flow of air and sound. The art museum was designed as a surface for display with no thought for the comfort of visitors or workers.
Casa Batllo was marvelous with shiny tiles, unexpected door panels, curved wood work, stained glass windows, fish scale details on walls, a mushroom-shaped nook with a chocolate brown fireplace and ceilings that swirl.
La Paderera is a mass of creativity and comfort. It's modern but ageless and nothing if not different.
Having said that, Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's cathedral, isn’t my favorite place. Eighth wonder of the world though it may become when finished in 2050, I find the facade of the Nativity to be roughly swirled – a concrete head with naturally curly hair that has been in humidity and wind for 100 years already and twists in every direction with no pattern or place for the eye to rest. Rick says it is like a super large candle that has melted and dripped and then solidified into a huge waxy glob.
The spires are impressive and I think I like the multicolored fruits and eyes of god on top of them but there is so very much happening on the exterior walls that just looking at the shapes and shadows might drive a person mad. How did the workers ever manage to create it?
Inside it’s different. There are many calm surfaces and great stained glass colors and more stained glass to come in the next 4 decades and the massive amount of materials (rock, concrete, steel, glass, marbles from around Europe) staggers the mind as does the idea that the cathedral has been in progress since 1888 and won’t be finished for another 43 years.
It’s exciting to see a cathedral be constructed because it is such a massive and complex object. It’s an interesting project. Outside there's a lot of this and that - stuff I won’t live to see finished to make a final assessment. Inside, I like it. The columns have lines from floor to ceiling. The exterior walls are clearly defined and the stained glass installed so far puts blurs of orange and blue across people and floors. Again, hordes of people stand, walk and explore while construction workers pursue their tasks but the noise is never deafening and there are lots of shapes to look at and enjoy with places to draw the eye onward as well as to give allow pause. Inside, it feels like Gaudi while outside it's gaudy but everywhere it's a heck of a building.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Barcelona
Barcelona, Saturday
(The Internet in our apartment is slow and spotty but I will try to post photos on flickr which seems a bit faster than putting them in here.)
We used the Metro to get to the airport without problems yesterday. It took an hour or so using three trains but it was so early that it worked for us. We picked up our boarding passes or we thought we did but luckily Rick looked at them before security screening because they were for Emilie and Josh. Back at the check-in counter the woman realized she had passed our bag onto a plane that we weren’t flying on but thought that if we were related to someone on the plane that she could just report that and it would be okay.
We found Em and Josh, both hungry because their plane meals were cheese based (Will airlines ever understand vegan?) and tired because of the dueling/crying babies on board. (They always seem to travel with crying babies.)
The plane ride was short and we found each other and Rick’s oddly checked bag in Barcelona. While picking up our Barcelona passes a family came to the counter to report that one of their bags had been stolen from their cart and it held all their money and credit cards and their passports. The guide books were clear about the thievery here but that is a often-published warning. Actually seeing it happen made us grab our bags and keep a keen eye out. So far we've been okay and hopefully that family had some insurance or found some kind of immediate help.
The experience with the pay phone to call about our apartment was out of the keystone cops. Put the coin in. Don’t put the coin in. The number dialed. The number didn’t dial. Connect with the person. Fail to hear the person. Go to the apartment and call again. Someone might come. When someone actually did arrive it was a thrill.
The apartment is roomy with 4 bedrooms and a living room and kitchen and tiny balcony but it has no internet, only one wine glass and no salad spinner. The washing machine did make the clothes wet if not clean but it refuses to spin dry so our socks from last week are dripping still and will probably dry tomorrow.
We went out for food and exploration finding wonderful buildings, punks and Goths smoking and laughing, costumed people posing for money on Las Ramblas, a wine store experience with a cheerful and knowledgeable proprietor whose hand signs and smile extended Josh and Em’s Spanish into a conversation and some kind of fire and drum parade that brought out police, ambulances and lots of excited spectators.
Back at the apartment we dunked some tiny bread sticks in chocolate and I started battle with the washing machine. The opening act was washing Rick’s shirt with the Barcelona cards in the pocket. Pressed flat and dried overnight, it still works.
(The Internet in our apartment is slow and spotty but I will try to post photos on flickr which seems a bit faster than putting them in here.)
We used the Metro to get to the airport without problems yesterday. It took an hour or so using three trains but it was so early that it worked for us. We picked up our boarding passes or we thought we did but luckily Rick looked at them before security screening because they were for Emilie and Josh. Back at the check-in counter the woman realized she had passed our bag onto a plane that we weren’t flying on but thought that if we were related to someone on the plane that she could just report that and it would be okay.
We found Em and Josh, both hungry because their plane meals were cheese based (Will airlines ever understand vegan?) and tired because of the dueling/crying babies on board. (They always seem to travel with crying babies.)
The plane ride was short and we found each other and Rick’s oddly checked bag in Barcelona. While picking up our Barcelona passes a family came to the counter to report that one of their bags had been stolen from their cart and it held all their money and credit cards and their passports. The guide books were clear about the thievery here but that is a often-published warning. Actually seeing it happen made us grab our bags and keep a keen eye out. So far we've been okay and hopefully that family had some insurance or found some kind of immediate help.
The experience with the pay phone to call about our apartment was out of the keystone cops. Put the coin in. Don’t put the coin in. The number dialed. The number didn’t dial. Connect with the person. Fail to hear the person. Go to the apartment and call again. Someone might come. When someone actually did arrive it was a thrill.
The apartment is roomy with 4 bedrooms and a living room and kitchen and tiny balcony but it has no internet, only one wine glass and no salad spinner. The washing machine did make the clothes wet if not clean but it refuses to spin dry so our socks from last week are dripping still and will probably dry tomorrow.
We went out for food and exploration finding wonderful buildings, punks and Goths smoking and laughing, costumed people posing for money on Las Ramblas, a wine store experience with a cheerful and knowledgeable proprietor whose hand signs and smile extended Josh and Em’s Spanish into a conversation and some kind of fire and drum parade that brought out police, ambulances and lots of excited spectators.
Back at the apartment we dunked some tiny bread sticks in chocolate and I started battle with the washing machine. The opening act was washing Rick’s shirt with the Barcelona cards in the pocket. Pressed flat and dried overnight, it still works.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Segovia, Spain
Segovia's photos are on flickr.
Click on the flickr cloud and it should take you there.
We had more trouble finding Segovia's old town once we left the main bus station than we had finding the Sepulvedenna Bus Company that took us there. The guide book said that the aqueduct was near the bus station and the train station but it didn't say which direction from either. The map in the book was only of "old" Segovia and did not show either station so we walked an extra 2 kilometers in the wrong direction before asking for help.
Our source of information was a gray-haired, balding man in a Mr. Rogers sweater. We showed him the guide book photo of the aquaduct and he gave extensive directions(in Spanish) but we knew precious few words: walk, police, roundabout, right. It was enough.
We hiked back to the bus station/police station at the roundabout and turned right and there it was exactly where the Romans had placed it nearly 2,000 years ago and where we had passed without looking back over our shoulders nearly an hour earlier.
We walked top the top of the tallest end of the aqueduct bridge and looked out over the new and the old city while chilly winds whipped down from the mountains. The guide book, often wrong and inconvenient, was correct in stressing the need to see these ruins - "one of the most significant and best-preserved Roman aqueducts (or aqueduct bridge) on the Iberian Peninsula."
The date of construction is guessed at near the end of the 1st Century AD. That's impressively old because it doesn't look ancient. Not like the ancient ruins at Ankor Wat or the ruins in Thailand's old city. It looks just great, only a little worn.
The aqueduct transports waters from Spring Fuenfría (17 kilometers from the city), gathers it in a tank and lets the sand settles out and sends it onward. The tallest part is 93 feet and there are 167 arches.
It was rebuilt in the 15th Century to restore a portion destroyed by Moors in 1072 but most of it is 2,000 years old. At the taller end there are two lines of arches and the water channel is about 6 by 5 feet.
Rick was impressed that it is built of un-mortared granite blocks and that it was used until the 1990s. Actually it is still used as a back up source of water for the castle on the hill (Segovia Alcázar.
After looking at this end of the Aqueduct we walked to cathedral but were side-tracked by a market in the main square. There was a brisk business in fruit, cheese, pig ears, fish, and lots of warm scarves and sweaters. Several tourists came to Segovia in the shorts and sleeveless shirts that worked well in Madrid. They were covered in goose bumps. Most of the men stayed that way and the women opted for shawls. Some seemed not to notice the biting wind.
Outside the cathedral an old woman, dressed in black from scarf to shoes offered head scarves and table cloths all the color and detail she lacked.
The cathedral had more altars than a passel of priests could use. There were 2 - count 'em - 2 pipe organs.
I'm not talking about little things that would fit in your average church. These towered above the choir's chairs reaching near the top of the cathedral ceiling.
The chairs were nifty also. The backs were carved and the seats could fold half way leaving a little butt rest or they could unfold all the way and be an actual chair. None of them functioned that way anymore because now the choir sits is flimsy, modern, wooden, folding chairs and the 400 year old carved seats are roped off. The cathedral in Budapest and I think the one in Prague is the same.
The cathedral's ceiling was high but the high stained glass windows brought in enough light to clearly see the flying buttresses. The ceiling in the courtyard square was much like that in the building itself.
The main altar, when we were there, was being dressed in vases with hundreds of white flowers and in the cathedral's museum were priests' vestments and altar items ranging from finely crafted silver and gold to nailed together white metals.
Most of the cathedral was open floor space with only a small section of pews for seating. This particular building was rebuilt in the 1500's after the original was destroyed.
The cathedral was nice but my favorite part of the day was the time in the castle on the hill. Actually, we were both enormously impressed by the Alcazar. The ceilings were magnificent with the best in the room of kings. I’d like a scarf with that pattern in a nice silky fabric. It was turquoise and gold.
Spanish kings and queens must like to look up in their castles.
The armory had beautiful armor and, though I thought I had my fill of ornate yesterday, I did like the ornate amour. I think these were for tournaments and not for war but none of it looks comfy or protective. My favorite outfit had an articulated heart on the breast plate and smaller versions of the same design on the arms, elbows, legs, feet, knee wings (Well, what would you call them?) and thighs. Considering the tools of the time it’s amazing that the craftsmen could do such work. I really wished I could take some castings of those designs.
Before leaving we walked the entire length of the Aqueduct to find the stone at the end totally dry of course.
The spurs on the shoes reached out behind the heel at least 10 inches and the toes in front were knife thin and equally long. How did they walk let alone fight in those things? It could be that these were only the shoes worn for parade while on horses but it’s hard to imagine how anyone thought that these would be reasonable pieces of armor.
Rick liked the great old buildings throughout the old part of town and the narrow little streets that they nested up against. The streets were full of people most of the day though from 2-5 shops closed and the streets were empty for siesta.
We ended our day by walking to the very end of the aqueduct. It made two turns and while the water channel continued to flow down hill the structure itself adapted to the lay of the land so that it went from a towering bridge to a waist-high wall. Empty of water, full of dignity. What modern structures will last 2,000 years?
Click on the flickr cloud and it should take you there.
We had more trouble finding Segovia's old town once we left the main bus station than we had finding the Sepulvedenna Bus Company that took us there. The guide book said that the aqueduct was near the bus station and the train station but it didn't say which direction from either. The map in the book was only of "old" Segovia and did not show either station so we walked an extra 2 kilometers in the wrong direction before asking for help.
Our source of information was a gray-haired, balding man in a Mr. Rogers sweater. We showed him the guide book photo of the aquaduct and he gave extensive directions(in Spanish) but we knew precious few words: walk, police, roundabout, right. It was enough.
We hiked back to the bus station/police station at the roundabout and turned right and there it was exactly where the Romans had placed it nearly 2,000 years ago and where we had passed without looking back over our shoulders nearly an hour earlier.
We walked top the top of the tallest end of the aqueduct bridge and looked out over the new and the old city while chilly winds whipped down from the mountains. The guide book, often wrong and inconvenient, was correct in stressing the need to see these ruins - "one of the most significant and best-preserved Roman aqueducts (or aqueduct bridge) on the Iberian Peninsula."
The date of construction is guessed at near the end of the 1st Century AD. That's impressively old because it doesn't look ancient. Not like the ancient ruins at Ankor Wat or the ruins in Thailand's old city. It looks just great, only a little worn.
The aqueduct transports waters from Spring Fuenfría (17 kilometers from the city), gathers it in a tank and lets the sand settles out and sends it onward. The tallest part is 93 feet and there are 167 arches.
It was rebuilt in the 15th Century to restore a portion destroyed by Moors in 1072 but most of it is 2,000 years old. At the taller end there are two lines of arches and the water channel is about 6 by 5 feet.
Rick was impressed that it is built of un-mortared granite blocks and that it was used until the 1990s. Actually it is still used as a back up source of water for the castle on the hill (Segovia Alcázar.
After looking at this end of the Aqueduct we walked to cathedral but were side-tracked by a market in the main square. There was a brisk business in fruit, cheese, pig ears, fish, and lots of warm scarves and sweaters. Several tourists came to Segovia in the shorts and sleeveless shirts that worked well in Madrid. They were covered in goose bumps. Most of the men stayed that way and the women opted for shawls. Some seemed not to notice the biting wind.
Outside the cathedral an old woman, dressed in black from scarf to shoes offered head scarves and table cloths all the color and detail she lacked.
The cathedral had more altars than a passel of priests could use. There were 2 - count 'em - 2 pipe organs.
I'm not talking about little things that would fit in your average church. These towered above the choir's chairs reaching near the top of the cathedral ceiling.
The chairs were nifty also. The backs were carved and the seats could fold half way leaving a little butt rest or they could unfold all the way and be an actual chair. None of them functioned that way anymore because now the choir sits is flimsy, modern, wooden, folding chairs and the 400 year old carved seats are roped off. The cathedral in Budapest and I think the one in Prague is the same.
The cathedral's ceiling was high but the high stained glass windows brought in enough light to clearly see the flying buttresses. The ceiling in the courtyard square was much like that in the building itself.
The main altar, when we were there, was being dressed in vases with hundreds of white flowers and in the cathedral's museum were priests' vestments and altar items ranging from finely crafted silver and gold to nailed together white metals.
Most of the cathedral was open floor space with only a small section of pews for seating. This particular building was rebuilt in the 1500's after the original was destroyed.
The cathedral was nice but my favorite part of the day was the time in the castle on the hill. Actually, we were both enormously impressed by the Alcazar. The ceilings were magnificent with the best in the room of kings. I’d like a scarf with that pattern in a nice silky fabric. It was turquoise and gold.
Spanish kings and queens must like to look up in their castles.
The armory had beautiful armor and, though I thought I had my fill of ornate yesterday, I did like the ornate amour. I think these were for tournaments and not for war but none of it looks comfy or protective. My favorite outfit had an articulated heart on the breast plate and smaller versions of the same design on the arms, elbows, legs, feet, knee wings (Well, what would you call them?) and thighs. Considering the tools of the time it’s amazing that the craftsmen could do such work. I really wished I could take some castings of those designs.
Before leaving we walked the entire length of the Aqueduct to find the stone at the end totally dry of course.
The spurs on the shoes reached out behind the heel at least 10 inches and the toes in front were knife thin and equally long. How did they walk let alone fight in those things? It could be that these were only the shoes worn for parade while on horses but it’s hard to imagine how anyone thought that these would be reasonable pieces of armor.
Rick liked the great old buildings throughout the old part of town and the narrow little streets that they nested up against. The streets were full of people most of the day though from 2-5 shops closed and the streets were empty for siesta.
We ended our day by walking to the very end of the aqueduct. It made two turns and while the water channel continued to flow down hill the structure itself adapted to the lay of the land so that it went from a towering bridge to a waist-high wall. Empty of water, full of dignity. What modern structures will last 2,000 years?
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Travel - Food in Budapest
On the streets we found
I haven’t tried any of the sausages but Rick had a few - 12 inches long with lots of garlic. They are served with a creamy, brown mustard and sliced bread or fried potatoes.
I’ve had potatoes, the chicken (pink with paprika) and the pork – also with mustard.
The whole town smells like pastry and it seems there are strudel shops in every subway center of any size. Rick got an apple strudel at the Great Market and I stole two bites of it- no small feat. It was flavored with cinnamon and brown sugar and melted nicely on the tongue.
Rick also had some ice cream in
In
The pubs and internet bars are so smoke filled that it is barely possible to push through the fumes to get inside. Cigarette butts are plentiful and hazy, green, plumes of tainted air cling to the body after a visit but it is the only source of wifi.
Chocolate is everywhere and so I ate industrial quantities of it, just to keep my strength up with all the walking and staring agog at the magnificent buildings.
Our morning breakfast included orange juice redder than the apples and a wonderful dark brown bread with nuts and grains on the top.
The thing that Rick seemed to like best was the potato soup. Soups seem popular especially at this tiny restaurant where people stood in line during lunch hour to get bowls of creamy pea or spinach or potato soup. These were carried outdoors to the tables on the sidewalk and eaten with huge slices of bread and fried foods with a crispy coating. I'm not sure what all the somethings were under the coatings. Chicken and pork are likely candidates and some of the things were definitely mushrooms. I even have a mushroom story.
When were were there Rick ordered the potato soup (easy to do by pointing) and I asked for a breaded chicken (also available for pointing) and mustard (not in view). Mustard in English must sound like mushroom in Hungarian because the server pointed to the mushrooms but I said no, not that. Then it occurred to me to copy the word mustard. I could see it on the menu board but had no idea how to say it. (The Hungarians have a plethora of vowels.) Writing it on a slip of paper solved my problem but slowed progress in the serving line by several seconds.We ate on the sidewalk sharing a table with two beautiful girls while the cars and the trolley passed by.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Travel - more Budapest and beyond
Sunday
We crossed the Danube River from Pest to Buda to see the castle and walk up and down little
streets taking photos of houses and doors and cute little cars. At the Matthias Church we read about the extensive renovations being made to the building – about 700- years old. It has been studied extensively to find weak points in the walls and in the foundation. Piles of dirt are stacked on one side so that the structure beneath can be reinforced where it was built on a now-shifting clay surface. The tile roof has been replaced and work is ongoing to replace the metal, wood, stone and marble surfaces with attention to getting everything back to the original plans but allowing for modernization and stability.
The castle has been reworked also. It took about 60 years to figure out how to deal with it. During the communist rule there were plans to make it into party headquarters. Many centuries-old structures around the castle were torn down just
to clear the area. They could have been renovated but during Soviet rule the preservation of Hungarian history was not valued by those in charge. Eventually the castle was renovated to hold three separate museums for art and heritage of the Hungarian tribes.
Hungary only elected its first democratic parliament in 1990 and it was admitted to the EU shortly afterwards. It still uses its own currency and not the Euro though many shops will take Euros, British pounds, US dollars and maybe occasionally other currencies. For a country recently out of communism, the economy seems well developed.
Some buildings have what look like gun shot damage and I read today about the revolution in the 50s when the Hungarians fought for independence and the world didn't help them. Many buildings were damaged (no mention made of the people) and the uprising ended when the people were given some autonomous rule. Maybe that’s why the people are doing well now. They’ve had more practice than some other Soviet Bloc countries.
All the people look very stylish, particularly I notice their shoes and boots while Rick sees the mini skirts and boots together. The people seem fond of pastries and cigarettes and sausages and opera and theater. A bomb feel on the stage of the opera house during WW II but it didn’t explode so the majority of the building was undamaged while many buildings around it were destroyed.
The opera house was renovated about 20 years ago for its 100th anniversary. We toured the building but didn’t see an opera. Gone with the Wind was on last night and tonight was Macbeth.
I guess that we spent most of the day walking and looking at things and being thankful that the
rain stopped. We also spent some time reading guide books to plan out our last days here.
I took photos of the Metro 1 line, a feature we will miss. Trains come every 2 or 3 minutes to these quaint, little, clean stations. When the train arrives it plays a very short and happy tune just before the doors open. The cars supposedly hold 16 seated passengers and 50 standing but I counted 24 standing when the seats were full and couldn’t see another 26 people worth of space between all the bags and elbows.
Monday was another glorious spring day so we went to Szentendre by train. It was a touristy place for sure but with cute little buildings and streets. The buildings in this town and for several kilometers along the way are built of yellow, red or orange stucco with red tile roofs – except that we saw some roof repair going on and they aren’t tile but rather fiberglass. What a disappointment.
The colors of the houses are surprising because the colors of the tablecloths, pottery and
traditional outfits explode in every direction. We can’t look 2 inches without seeing the entire color wheel so certainly people here like color. I guess it just goes in the houses and not on them though the occasional house was roofed in a cheeky green with pistachio stucco.
There’s a famous ceramic museum there – closed on Mondays – and a Marzipan Museum where one can see a life-sized Michael Jackson or miniatures of many fairy tale creatures as well as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear and members of the Hungarian Monarchy – all in tons of very colorful Marzipan.
We met Kathy and Russ who are significant because her sister is married to John Nenos and they lived in Alfred for several years. We don’t know John Nenos but we do know his brother Jim and his wife Karrie Edwards and we know where their old house is so that was a little surprising.
On the way back we got off the train twice not knowing if that is allowed with this ticket but since nobody checked our tickets when we jumped back on it worked out okay. We stopped to
see ancient Roman ruins. There are two amphitheatres – one smaller than Rome’s coliseum and the other larger. They are said to be “resting” which means that nobody is tearing them down but nobody is restoring or protecting them either.
The Roman Coliseum is a huge tourist draw and money conduit if not money maker. The first amphitheatre we stopped at was Aquincum in OBuda or ancient Buda. It is visible from the train track so no problem finding it. The town was a military garrison in the first century AD and was also the seat of the Roman province of the time.
The amphitheatre was for the general public. The gate of death is to the west – named as it was used to carry slain gladiators from the ring. Now one might accurately describe it as a pit with rusted grocery carts and corners full of trash. Behind it appears to be a squatter’s village built of plastic tents.
Our next leap off the train was at the site of a military amphitheatre built in the second century
to hold up to 15,000 spectators. Larger than the facility in Rome, it has a full circle around a grassy pit, one lion’s cage still intact and some of the seating levels are in place. It does not have the tall walls of the coliseum or the Roman guards (with or without fox skins) or the food stalls, the guides and the throngs of people. A few students sat here and there talking or reading and a woman walked her dog where lions once shredded gladiators for the entertainment of thousands. Rick and I ate oranges in the breezy Hungarian sun.
We crossed the Danube River from Pest to Buda to see the castle and walk up and down little
streets taking photos of houses and doors and cute little cars. At the Matthias Church we read about the extensive renovations being made to the building – about 700- years old. It has been studied extensively to find weak points in the walls and in the foundation. Piles of dirt are stacked on one side so that the structure beneath can be reinforced where it was built on a now-shifting clay surface. The tile roof has been replaced and work is ongoing to replace the metal, wood, stone and marble surfaces with attention to getting everything back to the original plans but allowing for modernization and stability.The castle has been reworked also. It took about 60 years to figure out how to deal with it. During the communist rule there were plans to make it into party headquarters. Many centuries-old structures around the castle were torn down just
to clear the area. They could have been renovated but during Soviet rule the preservation of Hungarian history was not valued by those in charge. Eventually the castle was renovated to hold three separate museums for art and heritage of the Hungarian tribes.Hungary only elected its first democratic parliament in 1990 and it was admitted to the EU shortly afterwards. It still uses its own currency and not the Euro though many shops will take Euros, British pounds, US dollars and maybe occasionally other currencies. For a country recently out of communism, the economy seems well developed.
Some buildings have what look like gun shot damage and I read today about the revolution in the 50s when the Hungarians fought for independence and the world didn't help them. Many buildings were damaged (no mention made of the people) and the uprising ended when the people were given some autonomous rule. Maybe that’s why the people are doing well now. They’ve had more practice than some other Soviet Bloc countries.
All the people look very stylish, particularly I notice their shoes and boots while Rick sees the mini skirts and boots together. The people seem fond of pastries and cigarettes and sausages and opera and theater. A bomb feel on the stage of the opera house during WW II but it didn’t explode so the majority of the building was undamaged while many buildings around it were destroyed.
The opera house was renovated about 20 years ago for its 100th anniversary. We toured the building but didn’t see an opera. Gone with the Wind was on last night and tonight was Macbeth.
I guess that we spent most of the day walking and looking at things and being thankful that the
rain stopped. We also spent some time reading guide books to plan out our last days here.I took photos of the Metro 1 line, a feature we will miss. Trains come every 2 or 3 minutes to these quaint, little, clean stations. When the train arrives it plays a very short and happy tune just before the doors open. The cars supposedly hold 16 seated passengers and 50 standing but I counted 24 standing when the seats were full and couldn’t see another 26 people worth of space between all the bags and elbows.
Monday was another glorious spring day so we went to Szentendre by train. It was a touristy place for sure but with cute little buildings and streets. The buildings in this town and for several kilometers along the way are built of yellow, red or orange stucco with red tile roofs – except that we saw some roof repair going on and they aren’t tile but rather fiberglass. What a disappointment.
The colors of the houses are surprising because the colors of the tablecloths, pottery and
traditional outfits explode in every direction. We can’t look 2 inches without seeing the entire color wheel so certainly people here like color. I guess it just goes in the houses and not on them though the occasional house was roofed in a cheeky green with pistachio stucco.There’s a famous ceramic museum there – closed on Mondays – and a Marzipan Museum where one can see a life-sized Michael Jackson or miniatures of many fairy tale creatures as well as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear and members of the Hungarian Monarchy – all in tons of very colorful Marzipan.
We met Kathy and Russ who are significant because her sister is married to John Nenos and they lived in Alfred for several years. We don’t know John Nenos but we do know his brother Jim and his wife Karrie Edwards and we know where their old house is so that was a little surprising.
On the way back we got off the train twice not knowing if that is allowed with this ticket but since nobody checked our tickets when we jumped back on it worked out okay. We stopped to
see ancient Roman ruins. There are two amphitheatres – one smaller than Rome’s coliseum and the other larger. They are said to be “resting” which means that nobody is tearing them down but nobody is restoring or protecting them either.The Roman Coliseum is a huge tourist draw and money conduit if not money maker. The first amphitheatre we stopped at was Aquincum in OBuda or ancient Buda. It is visible from the train track so no problem finding it. The town was a military garrison in the first century AD and was also the seat of the Roman province of the time.
The amphitheatre was for the general public. The gate of death is to the west – named as it was used to carry slain gladiators from the ring. Now one might accurately describe it as a pit with rusted grocery carts and corners full of trash. Behind it appears to be a squatter’s village built of plastic tents.
Our next leap off the train was at the site of a military amphitheatre built in the second century
to hold up to 15,000 spectators. Larger than the facility in Rome, it has a full circle around a grassy pit, one lion’s cage still intact and some of the seating levels are in place. It does not have the tall walls of the coliseum or the Roman guards (with or without fox skins) or the food stalls, the guides and the throngs of people. A few students sat here and there talking or reading and a woman walked her dog where lions once shredded gladiators for the entertainment of thousands. Rick and I ate oranges in the breezy Hungarian sun.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Travel - Budapest One
On our first day in
The Delibab was originally constructed for orphaned Jewish girls and each little room has a little bathroom and two closets and two cupboards. The ceilings are tall and the banister is a narrow metal affair with a regular series of bumps which we guess were to discourage unlady-like sliding.
We saved the nearby museums for a possible rainy day and walked around the park where we found what Rick thought was a huge pocket watch. He was almost right. It’s a sculpture called Time Wheel, the world’s largest hour glass. So large in fact that it takes not an hour to transfer its sand from one side to the other but rather a year. On the last day of the year, pulleys and cranes work to roll Time Wheel on its base so it can start again.
We rode the subway into the center city and looked at the
We also searched for the pater-noster, a lift that carries people only upward, never stopping but letting passengers hop on or off as it slowly makes its way up the building. It drops in darkness to the basement and starts up again. Named for the similarity to a chain of rosary beads, it is an outdated conveyance and is now so outdated that, apparently, the last buildings that had it are gone and shiny new structures are growing behind scaffolding.
We ate at a picnic table in the center of “downtown” and listed to a soprano sax at the corner.
The rain started just in time for our morning excursion so we went to one of the art museums. My favorite piece was by Franz von Lenback . Titled “Triumphal Arch of Titus,
There was a gypsy family walking under the arch with a donkey while two little boys rolled in the dirt at the edge of the road and goats watched them. It was nice to see something other than Jesus, Mary and Joseph surrounded by saints and angles and speaking of saints it appears that Barthomew was flayed. He looked at first as if he was standing in his red union suit with a white scarf but that scarf had hands and feet and his right hand held a knife. He had quite the serene look for someone standing skinless and one might wonder what he did to deserve such treatment.
In the afternoon we went to The Great Market Hall. It had stalls full of garlic, peppers, veggies, beef, fish, and the aroma of superior sauerkraut. We took photos and looked at crafts. The local crafts include very expensive and colorful tablecloths and blouses as well as very colorful porcelain and very colorful painted eggs and toys. Color was big on the list. It was nicely done work but just too colorful.
We took the metro to the train station to see what Emilie and Josh said was the most beautiful McDonalds ever. It certainly was gorgeous. It seemed that the old train station was larger than needed for train business so there were stores and clubs and a huge McDonalds. A McDonalds of majesty built in the remnants of the old train station restaurant.
We walked some dark and empty streets to see Parliament at night. There were lots of cars but not many walkers. We went back to the hotel with plans to make it out there again,
Back at the hotel we checked the weather on the internet to learn of continuing rain that will give way to four days of sun by evening. Yippee,
Saturday
At about 3:30 people moved into the room next to ours though it sounded as if they were in our our two little closet moving refrigerators, stomping and yelling. It went on for about 20 minutes – TV, talking, music, clomping, banging. It didn't seem there was enough stuff in the room to make that much noise.
We had breakfast and took off for the Saturday flea market – a place that like supermarkets often shows tremendous variety and unexpected sights. If we were into Smurfs or Star Wars we would have thought we’d gone to shopper’s heaven. In addition to those toys we found CDs, Playstation games, toys, sundries, food, and lots of geodes and crystals too. We bought nothing. Actually we didn’t buy anything but food here until Saturday afternoon.
We walked to the Amusement park to see the carousel, now a national treasure. It’s in a glass building at the road side so we didn't have to enter the park. It has horses on platforms that seemed to be positioned to lift and rock but though the park had been supposedly open for an hour nobody was there to ride. This was perfectly reasonable since it was so cold and damp.
We took photos of the museums in the area and of the Anonymous Monk. Aspiring writers touch his quill for inspiration. The monk wrote the history of the area but I guess he never signed his name.
We strolled around the bathhouse and tried to understand what it offers and what it costs. It seemed we should try this famous and popular Hungarian activity but getting wet on such a cold damp day does not sound inviting. The building is beautiful – ornate, yellow, large, clean, holding lots more people than the Amusement Park.
The bathhouse offers massages and carbolic acid baths as well as mud wraps and steam baths.
Em and Josh though about going inside when they came here last year but they didn't actually bathe.
We did find our way into a grocery store where we found lots of sliced meats. It was interesting how many processed, sliced meats there were. The raw meats too were stacked tall and shiny in the cooler. In the great market we found smoked meats – hams, bacon, sausages – salt-crusted and dark brown hanging on hooks above the clerks. Some of the hams and cheeses looked as if they would need a forklift to get them down.
We went downtown and chanced upon a peasant dancing troupe with a band consisting of hammered dulcimer, two violins and a bass and then went to the Opera House in time to miss the
The Basilica took 50+ years to build and made its way through three architects in the process. It is loaded with gold leaf and has the desiccated right hand of St. Stephen near the main altar. It also has the largest organ in
We traveled back on the subway to the center of town and actually bought two things: a soprano recorder (almond wood) and a spoon (apple wood). The flute maker was a flute player and he could really rock on anything –shepherd’s flute, double flute, recorder, ocarina.
We found the chain bridge and the funicular railroad but tomorrow is supposed to be 15 degrees warmer and much drier so we are waiting for that before we cross the river. The
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